November 2019 Grocery Challenge

thriftwizard

Flying past to add £36.38 to my total, having hurtled into L!dls on our way through to Mum's this morning & picked up a few essential non-perishables & a couple of festive items. Not sure whether I will need another trip later in the month but I should be able to eke things out if I need to.

XSpender

NSD for me today . I even went into Sainsburys to see if they had any GF panettone in stock and walked out empty handed :A

I have meal planned for the next week and have listed one freezers contents. I need to eat some space for Christmas goodies.

StripeyTightsSpottySocks

£65.01 spent now of £150 budget Almost half of the budget and not even half of the month :eek: (started on 27th) This is a guesstimate first month for me and i am learning a lot about my spending. The £21 & pence this time was for ingredients which are staples and will last a long time :T But also some fresh fruit and veg and the price would have been more but i was very lucky to be gifted some fruit and veg & other bits (they had too much and had been gifted some). I also got reduced quality bacon so a good saving really. I was also really good - had been thinking of my spends on food and realised spent a bit of budget on reduced food - not super cheap but cheap enough but after using some prefer my own cooking and left a few things i saw today - yes a good price but not a need. A small step - but in the right direction.

So i've been baking muffins - any other suggestions for bananas?
Stewed apples ready to be frozen and turned into a crumble later - unless there are suggestions for what else stewed apples can be turned into?
Have pears to stew - this week at some point.
Potatoes i may turn into potato cakes
Eggs tested and cooked.

So no waste there. i have peppers left to use up, small punnet of tomatoes, mushrooms on the turn and more bananas so any suggestions very welcome.

Extra ingredients spend was ingredients for muffins and bread - so will last a while. Still was not planned but i enjoy baking and forget i do until i do it again.

Admittedly also bought a reduced loaf - was a luxury type one and i've not the time to do bread today.

Suffolk Lass thank you for the tips - already halve products but a good reminder. & i like the idea of annual budget for offers

MandM90 any advice on the best time to go to to L1d1 for the box? This will be a big help to me the rest of this month as always need fresh stuff.

21 days left until end of my 'November' - Plenty of food in & will really aim to be under budget.

Love reading all your updates - so motivating. Thank you for the thread elsiepac

zafiro1984

I'm a little late to the party this month.
Can you please put me down for £250 for the month.

I've already spent £78.22 of my budget but I feel as if I'm ahead of the game so with the wind in the right direction I should only need fruit plus some bits and bobs for the next couple of weeks.

Suffolk_lass

StripeyTightsSpottySocks wrote: »

Quick question - i bought kitchen roll - other than rags is there an alternative as this is an expensive spend to get quality

I meant to answer this and then forgot. I use DH's old vest T-shirts for the really awful throw away things but I am much more diligent about using an e-cloth-style microfibre dish-cloth for mopping general spills and wiping things down. If I want things dried and polished I use an old-fashioned cotton or linen Tea Towel. I boil the dishcloths regularly and put them in the dishwasher whenever I do a 70 degree cycle - it does not eradicate the use of paper but it does minimise it so I mostly use it for soaking up oil or fat from my pans before they are washed so it doesn't go into the sewerage system.

wishus

StripeyTightsSpottySocks wrote: »

So i've been baking muffins - any other suggestions for bananas?

Good old banana bread/tea loaf, or mix into pancakes, or smoothies. Or, if still pretty good, try slicing and freezing. When you fancy some 'ice cream' blitz the frozen banana in a food processor. Also goes lovely with peanut butter.


Declaring a spend of £8.40 in M&S - en route to a gig, this was for dinner for myself and OH, YS only. some snacks left over for today.

bett_rhy

Hi

Could i possibly join? I really need to get my shopping in line.

£280 for 3 adults, 2 kids, 2 doggos and a cat

That's for everything for the month (oh dear)

xxx

pennywisesheeb

Hi Everyone,

Am new here and am desperate to try and get my grocery spend under control.

I've currently got a well stocked fridge, freezer and pantry and think I can see the rest of this month (upto the 30th) out on £150. This needs to cover food, cleaning products and toiletries for 2 adults and two children (3&8).

I am hoping to come in under and roll some over into my December budget.

I'm off to plan some meals from the cupboards.

Suffolk_lass

Welcome to the new people - lots of support on here and plenty of tips and recipes if you are going for cupboard cooking options.

Any questions, do ask - and an old tip is to thank as you go so you know where you are up to if you want to track tips and keep up with others

wishus

Just spent 81p at Milk & More, already in my signature.

I am going to have to buy food out tonight, but will take from my extra-curricular business expenses pot.